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Ontario RAT3 Revamp.

something to have on my belt and cut string, a tomato, some herbs for the bbq meat or wittle summat, you get the idea.

i did some reading up and came across a lot of good reviews on the RAT3, and the feed back seemed to be that it would suit the jobs i had in mind.

i took it this summer on a two week camp and it did as i expected, plus some light batoning.....but,...

my mate called me rambo?!?!?! and i was already aware it looked a bit too military, the sheath especially.

so, i got itchy , erm,...hands?..and decided i was gonna have a play,...

one reason i dont have the money to throw at a custom bushy, and two i WANTED to try my hand at at the very least a re-handle.

ok so i never done this before, and i have limited tackle, just a band saw and hand tools really,..

i hope as well as just a progress thread of a re-handle, i hope it can also prove anyone can have a go at it if you have the desire..

if i can do it anyone can sorta thing.

please note, i,m by no means teaching or saying my techniques are correct,..i,m just bumbling through it, asking a bit here, borrowing a bit there, and looking at old threads on here etc,..

this is the bit of Laburnum i found to cut the scales from.

Forgot to mention, i had a sheath made by Ian from BB, i commisioned him to go down the bushy theme, the green micarta just clashed completly with the dark brown leather..

so i removed them to see where to begin,

these are the slabs i cut on the bandsaw, i went a bit thiker than the micarta for comfort and to allow some finishing, but could,nt go too much thicker as the sheath was built around the original knife,,,,

just havin a squint at it trying to imagine what its gonna look like,..

next i needed to think about lining up the scales, so i clamped one in place and ran a 5mm drill thru the tang into the wood. then pushed a spare drill in the hole while i drilled the other two....then repeat on the other scale..to get this,.....

youll notice i took the black coating off the blade too,...i did this with a razor/stanley blade as i didnt want to use nitromors as i dont know if it effects the steel,...then i flatted it off with some 600 grit just to see the condition of the steel...i will polish it later before fitting the scales..

i begged some liners in sexy red, and the 5mm brass pins are also begged ,...but then SWMBO shouts up to the garage tha me tea is ready so, i'll continue tommorow with some luck,..

oh i started knocking up a fire steel knob too out of the left over laburnum.

and i did start making some mosaic pins just as a test, but i think i should walk before i run,,,anyhoo heres the result using , brass pipe inserts, paper clips and stainless mig wire and super glue,...

they are for a little side project i began at the same time so as not to throw me sen into the main one unprepared,...so i think a good idea to practice on a cheap knife with scrap materials,..

one last thing is i used a cutelry drawer divider to keep the project in while its in build as my w/shop isnt really set up for knifecraftery..so i bring it all down to the house in the evening to sit and think about the next stage over a beer,..

i,m going to polish the blade tommorow and fit the liners and scales with some apoxy,

thanks for looking , any advice is welcome,

Stu..

Last edited by ex-member Raikey; 08-10-2010 at 23:08.
Reason: numptyness!!

hey chap, Just noticed, the front of your handle, towards the blade, I think you may have an issue with the liners there, I would have cut\sanded and polished that bit as its the only place you cant get to once the epoxy has gone of, you may find that the glue has pushed under the liner there and will give you problems when you come to work on that bit, unless you ment to leave the liner exposed?